Tag Archives: bloomsbury

Exclusive: Marvel Explodes as Paul Levitz explores the Bullpen to Big Business

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Cover of the book 'Marvel Explodes: From Bullpen to Big Business' by Paul Levitz, featuring various Marvel superheroes and villains in a colorful comic book style.

Published by Bloomsbury and written by Paul Levitz, Marvel Explodes: From Bullpen to Big Business looks at the pivotal period of comic history from 1967 to 1975, just before three of Marvel’s classic anthologies were split into separate titles to accommodate the growing popularity of characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, The Hulk, Doctor Strange, and Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.

From that moment on, Marvel entered an explosive arc of growth, which culminated in them becoming America’s largest comic publisher in 1972.

Writer Paul Levitz tells the story of that unprecedented expansion year-by-year using his intimate knowledge of the industry and those involved to explore this decisive period from a creative standpoint – the expanded mythology, the new titles, and the writers and artists who would join to fuel the explosion – as well as a business one: detailing the key transitions, including new distributors, owners, and opportunities.

Marvel Age of Comics offers an eyewitness account of Marvel Comics in the years that established, then cemented, its greatness.

Marvel Explodes: From Bullpen to Big Business is out now and you can get it from Bookshop, Amazon, and more.

Check out an exclusive look at the book below.

  • Vintage comic book cover for 'Ka-Zar' featuring a muscular man holding a weapon, standing beside a lion in a jungle setting.
  • Cover of Captain America Comics #1 from March 1941, featuring Captain America fighting against soldiers, with iconic shield and superhero outfit.
  • Cover of 'The Fantastic Four' #1 from November 1961, featuring vibrant comic art with characters like The Thing, Mr. Fantastic, Human Torch, and Invisible Girl battling a giant creature in a city setting.
  • A page from a book discussing Marvel Comics in 1968, highlighting the launch of titles like Spectacular Spider-Man and Silver Surfer, along with various series characters and publishing strategies.
  • An illustration from X-Men #59 (1969) featuring a cosmic scene with fiery elements and descriptive text about a planet's temperature.
  • Cover of Amazing Adventures #1, featuring The Inhumans and The Black Widow, published by Marvel Comics in August 1970. The cover showcases colorful artwork by Jack Kirby and John Romita, with characters in dynamic poses.
  • Cover of Fantastic Four #116, featuring Doctor Doom, the Thing, and Sue Storm, with the tagline 'The Alien... The Ally... And Armageddon!'
  • Cover of The Mighty World of Marvel #1 comic featuring Spider-Man, the Hulk, and the Thing in action poses with bold text announcing 'The World's Greatest Superheroes!'
  • Cover of 'Giant-Size Man-Thing #1', featuring the character Man-Thing battling The Glob, with bright colors and dynamic poses; includes text indicating it is a first issue.
  • Cover of Marvel Preview #4 featuring Star-Lord, depicting the character in a space setting with a large moon in the background, emphasizing his role as a galactic hero.

Bloomsbury reveals new spreads from Marvel Age of Comics: Miles Morales

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Explore the Stories Behind the Legends

First introduced in 2011 by Brian Michael Bendis and Sara Pichelli, Miles Morales reconceived Spider-Man as African American and Latinx, and his debut marked a new direction in the saga of a beloved character.

Miles Morales as Spider-Man is a coming-of-age tale of a smart, affable teen coming into his power. From his reluctance to becoming a super hero to his desire to help others, to the rocky balance between his school life and super hero responsibilities, Miles is always at the precipice of making tough decisions-choices whose consequences are as weighted in his personal life as they often are for the survival of the world.

Illustrated with full-color art, Ytasha L. Womack‘s entry in the Marvel Age of Comics looks at the hugely successful reimagining of one of the most popular super hero characters of all time.

Bloomsbury has revealed a new look at the Marvel Age of Comics entry, Spider-Man: Miles Morales which is out now. Get it on Bookshop, Amazon, and more.

Wolverine: Weapon X joins the Marvel Age of Comics

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The Marvel Age of Comics is a series of concise, affordable, beautifully designed books that explore the history of over 85 years of Marvel Comics. Barry Windsor-Smith‘s Weapon X storyline and the legacy of Windsor-Smith is explored in Wolverine: Weapon X by Jim Rugg.

When Weapon X hit shelves in 1991 it was a product of a new era. More mature readers meant more mature content. Antiheroes and super hero characters with more ambiguous moral codes began to rise in popularity.

In Weapon X, Windsor-Smith pulled off the ultimate inversion of the male super hero fantasy. Helplessness.

He’s credited as the writer, penciller, inker, colorist, and co-letter of the storyline. Unhampered by continuity, he handled storytelling very differently than the standard Marvel house style approach, and Rugg pays close attention to his storytelling choices as well as his artwork, linework, and unusual drawing technique, which at times relied on color shapers without using ink lines.

Thirty-five years after its first publication, Windsor-Smith’s Weapon X is still celebrated. In 1991, it was ahead of tis time. Today its is timeless.

Jim Rugg’s Wolverine: Weapon X is out now.

Graphic Policy’s Top Comic Picks this Week!

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InvisibleRepublic06_CoverWednesdays are new comic book day! Each week hundreds of comics are released, and that can be pretty daunting to go over and choose what to buy. That’s where we come in!

We’re bringing back something we haven’t done for a while, what the team thinks. Our contributors are choosing up to five books each week and why they’re choosing the books.

Find out what folks think below, and what comics you should be looking out for this Wednesday.

Brett

Top Pick: Democracy GN (Bloomsbury) – Beginning in 490 BCE, this graphic novel shows the tortuous birth of democracy, is crammed with extraordinary characters and tells in incident and vivid detail how this greatest of civic inventions came about.

Invisible Republic #6 (Image Comics) – This comic featuring a reporter uncovering the truth of the rise and fall of a world leader and revolutionary is a fascinating comic that I can’t get enough of. Every issue is riveting.

Princeless: Be Yourself #4 (Action Lab Entertainment) – The end to the latest volume is here! This is a series that’s fun for both kids and adults, and should be on everyone’s read list.

Transformers: Windblade #7 (IDW Publishing) – Windblade and Starscream are competing to gain lost Transformer colonies as allies. The latest one might be more than either can handle.

We Are Robin #4 (DC Comics) – The last issue ended with a bang, and it looks like the first team member has been killed. The series is an interesting one, diverse, full of energy, I’m just not quite sure where it’s going, but I want to find out.

 

Elana

Top Pick: Over the Garden Wall #2 (BOOM! Studios) – One of the most visually arresting cartoons on TV apparently has a comic book and I didn’t even know! Join me in making up for lost time. This TV series was haunting and charming and funny and beautiful and since the book shares a creative team with the show it looks wonderful. A must for fans of Turn-of-the-last-century Americana.

Avatar: The Last Airbender. Smoke and Shadow TP Part 1 (Dark Horse) -Written by Eisner winner Gene Luen Yang, all of the Avatar comics have been wonderful addendum to the beloved TV series. I’m sure that all-ages-all-genders loveliness will continue in this new arc.

Fight Club 2 #5 (Dark Horse) – If you liked the movie or the book you’re probably already reading this. An incredibly well crafted book in story and art.

Grayson #12 (DC Comics) – “You’re here, I’m here. We’re surrounded by an excessive amount of skulls. The moment just seems right…” daaamn, Grayson was using all of my old pickup lines last issue. This series manages to be funny, suspenseful, fanservicey as hell but also surprisingly emotionally raw when it wants to be. In this issue Grayson is finally returning to Gotham. He’s going to be shaken (not stirred) and it’s going to be interesting.

Wolf #3 (Image Comics) – Urban fantasy/horror that actually feels fresh. Everything creator Ales Kot touches is both out-of-the-box and small (p) political.

 

Paul

Top Pick: X-Tinction Agenda #4 (Marvel) – The mutants of Utopia must band together with the mutants of Genosha in order to defeat a a common foe…a traitor from within!  This has been an enjoyable title, revisiting the island of Genosha and the struggle of its inhabitants to survive not only a virus slowly killing them, but also having their one time friends turn their backs on their plight.  Looking forward to see how this showdown ends.

Captain Marvel and the Carol Corps #4 (Marvel) – This title has been a surprise for me.  I really wasn’t expecting much, but I am loving the story of Captain Marvel and her squad questioning the world they live in and their “Lord Doom”; thoughts that could cost them their very lives; and now they have a team of Thors coming for them!  Really excited to see if they find the answers they’ve been looking for.

Runaways #4 (Marvel) – To be honest, I wasn’t thrilled with this title after issue #2 so I haven’t kept up with it; but then I saw the cover for #4 and I decided to get #3 as well and see what’s been happening.  I really liked the cast of characters and this team up, and the kids rebelling against all they’ve been taught to believe.  We’ll see if the latest issues have stepped up, so for that, I am looking forward to this.